Rossetti, Biagio

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Rossetti, Biagio (c.1447–1516). Important Renaissance architect, who worked mostly in Ferrara. He designed one of the most spectacular urban developments of C15, the Addizione Erculea, the northern extension of the city that more than doubled its area, complete with the Piazza Nuova and the intersection of the Via Prione and Via degli Angeli (from 1492). Rossetti himself designed four churches and eight palazzi, including the Palazzo dei Diamanti (1493–1567), so called because of the diamond-pointed rustication of its façades. In the Piazza Nuova he designed the Palazzo Rondinelli and the Palazzo Strozzi-Bevilacqua (both from 1494), with arcaded ground-floors. He also designed the Church of San Francesco in the old city (from 1494) on a plan based on Brunelleschi's San Lorenzo, Florence, with a nave ceiling consisting of transverse arches supporting shallow domes on pendentives. In the Addizione he also designed the aisleless vaulted San Cristofero alla Certosa (from 1498).

Bibliography

Heydenreich (1996);
Marcianò (1991);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
Jane Turner (1996);
Zevi (1960)

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Rossetti, Biagio

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